Morning Media Mix

David Carr looks at why all these leaks and whistleblowers are pitting journalists against each other. It ain’t 1969, when the Pentagon Papers were published and Daniel Ellsberg was eventually hailed a journalistic hero. Instead, journalists are turning on what Mr. Carr calls an “emerging Fifth Estate composed of leakers, activists and bloggers.”

Part of the problem is that some of these whistleblowers can be kind of a pain, like the time Mr. Carr dined with Mr. Assange at a proper lunch in the English countryside and Mr. Assange “announced to the table that he thought the primary requirements for being a journalist at The New York Times were the ability to lie and obfuscate.”

But poor table manners and being smelly (ahem, Mr. Assange) doesn’t mean that this emerging Fifth Estate shouldn’t get the same protections as other journalists (and maybe not come under fire from the established Fourth Estate). (The New York Times)

If you haven’t read Joe Hagan’s look at Times CEO Mark Thompson yet, well, what did you do this weekend? (New York magazine)

Ready for “a big public brawl” between Jay Penske and Nikki Finke? Of course you are. You’ve been ready your whole life, you just didn’t know it yet. (New York Post)

What’s next for Tina Brown? The Daily Beast is believed to be on track to lose as much as $12 million this year, and Ms. Brown’s contract is reportedly up in January. She could she run her Women in the World summit full time? Finish that Hilary Clinton book (which could be well timed, actually)? Or make Gawker’s Nick Denton happy and do something on the Internet “without the millstone of a dying magazine around her neck or an erratic billionaire pulling her strings”? One thing is for sure. The speculation is just beginning. (Ad Week)

The New Yorker looks at MSNBC, which is trying to figure out what liberals want. (sub. required so either wait for your print magazine to come on Wednesday or try and remember your password for digital access). (The New Yorker)